New guy questions

Towing in overdrive shouldn't be an issue if you're not towing on hills. Although, if I were towing near the limit of the vehicle, I would probably keep it out of overdrive like yourself.

I don't think anyone has produced concrete evidence that the planetary gear issue was isolated to just the 00 year and not 01-02. I see no mention of it in Toyota's TSBs.

 

I do see sprinklings of other year models in the 00-03 range with mention of planetary gear issues, I meant that I did not believe all 2000 year models were affected by the "weak" planetary gear issue. I'm not even sure what causes the problem with the planetary gear as I have not babied mine and have never had an issue. Show of hands if anyone has had the planetary gear failure? And I would not tow in OD for anything over a couple thousand pounds. The issue is the lock-up torque converter locking and un-locking and creating excess heat that will ruin the trans fluid and potentially the transmission. You're also not allowing the engine to be in it's optimum torque range in OD. It's OK for the RPM's to be higher while towing, you need the power, that's where it lives. OD is for MPG when unloaded on the highway. That's it.

 

Thanks for all the info gents!
Looks like im off to the auction to see whats what. I see a couple options that may or may not be decent.

 

Agree with above. I have 2000 AC w/ almost 300K. It can smoke tires all day and easily pull a ski boat.
Engines are interference so change timing belt and water pump every 100k
Assembly robots over torqued exhaust manifolds on early year resulting cracks cause ticking noise when cold. Mine did this at 80k miles
I’ve not had any trans issues but some have had planetary failures.
I have had driveshaft carrier bearing fail needing to be replaced
I’ve replaced all my OEM coils after 5 of them failed at different times
I’ve replaced wiper transmission after non replaceable bushing failed
I’ve replaced a radiator that leaked at the tank crimp. The ones at the FLAPS are cheap chinesium crap and I got two defective ones at Autozone and Advanced before getting a decent one at NAPA
The OEM starters are bullet proof but the solenoid contacts are not. Mine suffered the notorious click of death no-start at 100k. Dealer quoted me 1300 to fix so I did it myself in about for hours. We have a local old school auto electric that rebuilds starters and generators. He sold me the copper plunger and L contacts for $5. The idiot engineer that put the starter in the valley under the intake deserves to be shot.
I’ve replaced all my dash bulbs twice after several burned out - buy them online much cheaper than local
My power steering started leaking at 200k. Leaks were plastic reservoir and rubber return hose. The short molded rubber hose can only be bought as an assembly with the power steering hard lines about $500 from Toyota. I ended up buying and aftermarket hose set from Rock Auto for 70 bucks and only using the short rubber section.
Several of the rubber vacuum lines on the engine deteriorated and leaked. Toyota is very proud of these hoses so you’ll have to suck it up when buying those
I cracked the molex connector to my throttle body. Toyota sell every single connector as an empty connector. Makes replacing them simple without need to splice any pigtails. Getting a pinning tool and it’s easy to remove pins and put into new connector
On the whole it’s a great truck and been very dependable. For towing my jet ski I like it better than my 2018 because the bed is longer and lower. Can’t see the jet ski from my Gen 2.5 truck